Many people are calling it the best SPX ever, and I’m not going to disagree. And I can prove it with graphs!

And, for those concerned with filthy lucre:

A lot of this change is because I’m drawing better books, but the larger crowd this year was a pretty big help, too.

SPX has never been a “selling” show for me, though. I go because it’s a great social experience – everyone stays in the same hotel, and hangs out at the same parties.

I got to spend time with many of my favorite cartoonists, who I’m not going to list because it would take too long, and I know I’d accidentally leave someone out. But many of them are New Yorkers who I only get to see at conventions, and some I’ve been bumping into at cons since 2003.

At the post-Ignatz party, it took me almost an hour to move across the room, but I couldn’t go more than 20 feet without running into someone I wanted to talk to! And while I was on the show floor, I had the same experience, but with books I wanted to read!

Me: This is really cute! What’s it about? Eric: It’s about a chef, in a Dungeons & Dragons world - Me: Okay, stop. Eric: – who kills exotic monsters so he cook them into - Me: Stop talking! You have already made the sale!

I also picked up Shotgun Funeral from Laura Terry, who makes art that is crazy-gorgeous, and I’m deeply jealous of her coloring ability.

One cute comic: Roquefort, about a ballroom-dancing fox. The characters have a really good sense of motion, and it includes a musical montage, which is always nice.

Okay, I’m going to post this now and run out the door, and I’ll probably edit it with updates later.

This book collects all of the recent D&D comics! It’ll debut at the Small Press Expo in Bethesda, Maryland this weekend. If you’d like to visit me there, please do so! I’ll ditch my table for a bit and we can grab a beer at the hotel bar.